The baseball bat is the offensive weapon by which the batter may impose his will upon the pitcher's delivery. According to Official Baseball Rule 3.02 "No player shall intentionally discolor or damage the ball by rubbing it with soil, rosin, paraffin, licorice, sand-paper, emery paper or other foreign substance." In baseball's inimitable quality of maintaining balance, similar restrictions are placed upon the batter and his weapon.
Early baseball rules required only that the bat be round, wood, no more than 2.5 inches in diameter at the thickest part and "of any length to suit the striker." In 1872 and 1873, the rules provided that the "batter shall be privileged to use his own private bat exclusively. No player of the opposing club shall have any claim to the use of the bat except by consent of the owner." In 1874, the rules required that the bat be entirely of wood, so that any metal or "other material" on it would render it illegal. In 1885, the handle of the bat could be wound with twine not to exceed 18 inches from the end. In 1886, this rule was modified to allow the bat to have "a granulated substance" (presumably rosin) on the bat handle for the same 18 inches. The maximum diameter of the bat was increased to 2.75 inches in 1895 and the maximum length was fixed at 42 inches in 1893.
Although the bat rule was reworded in a major 1949 recodification, these basics still applied. In 1954, the rule allowed the bat handle to be roughened or wrapped with tape or twine for the "18 inches from which the bat is gripped." A 1975 modification permitted the other end of the bat to be "cupped," but the indentation must be "curved with no foreign substance added." In 1976, pine tar made its first official entry into the Rules, when Rule 1.10(b) was changed to allow the bat handle to be "covered or treated with any material (including pine tar) to improve the grip." A violation of the 18 inch limitation "shall cause the bat to be removed from the game." The material shall not "improve the reaction or distance factor of the bat."
Rule 1.10(b) was an apparent exception to Rule 6.06(d), which allowed the umpire to declare a batter out and to eject him from the game if he uses or attempts to use a bat that "has been altered or tampered with in such a way to improve the distance factor or cause an unusual reaction on the baseball," such as by being covered "with a substance such as paraffin, wax, etc."
On Jul. 24, 1983, Kansas City Royals third baseman George Brett hit a two-run home run to give his team an apparent 5-4 win against the New York Yankees, but the umpire, upon the urging of Yankee manager Billy Martin, measured the pine tar and determined that the pine tar was excessive. He ejected Brett under Rule 6.06(d), but the protest by the Royals was upheld by the league president. The fault, according to the league, lay in the rules, not in the umpire. That winter the Official Rules Committee reworded and renumbered Rule 1.10(b). It now reads: "The bat handle, for not more than 18 inches form its end, may be covered or treated with any material or substance to improve the grip. Any such material or substance, which extends past the 18 inch limitation, shall cause the bat to be removed from the game. If the umpire discovers that the bat does not conform to the above until after a time during or after which the bat has been used in play, it shall not be grounds for declaring the batter out, or ejected from the game." The Rule has not been changed since.
So pine tar entered baseball and baseball approved of it. That does not mean pine tar is attractive or desirable. As any baseball fan can tell you, George Brett was such a user of the substance that the visor of his Royals-blue batting helmet took on a distinctive brown color by the mid-summer All Star game every year. And the preferred method of application leaves much to be desired. Pine tar is usually applied to a cloth, the "pine tar rag," from which it is transferred to the bat by rubbing the rag on the bat handle. This application generally occurs in the "on deck circle," a dirt area between the player bench and the batters box. Between uses, the rag is thrown in the dirt and subjected to the weather, including the rain. Before long, the majority of what actually gets applied to the bat is something other than pine tar, which results in more vigorous application, and an overall messy situation. Dirty and wet, the pine tar rag is not a pleasant sight to retrieve at the end of the game.
A need for a good grip is not unique to baseball. Golfers, racquet sports players and hockey players, among others, need the grip, but they have not adopted the colorful and aromatic pine tar and the wonderfully transportable pine tar rag.
While pine tar is as ubiquitous as rosin bags, particularly at the major league level, the product is used simply because an effective alternative did not exist. When used regularly, the product tends to accumulate on the bat handle, and is extremely difficult to remove, particularly in accommodations where major league ballplayers would reside. While gasoline and turpentine are somewhat effective solvents, fire regulations and safety concerns prohibit the use of such products within confined hotel spaces. Therefore, players have had to resort to hair dryers, and knives in an attempt to remove unwanted accumulations of pine tar. The product is simply too sticky.
While a good grip is essential, there is a point beyond which it is a drawback. When a batter hits the ball onto the playing surface, there is an immediate need to have the bat released from the hitters' hands, thereby enabling him to assume the most aerodynamic position possible in his race to first base. The difference between a batter being safe or out at first base can be as small as a few fractions of a second.
Pine tar also possess a drawback of having adverse reactions by many products onto which it is transferred. Batting gloves for example, have a tendency to become stiff and uncomfortable after several exposures to pine tar applied to a bat handle. It is for these reasons that Joe Carter embarked upon an inventive path to both improve upon the applicator used to impart a grip-enhancing substance onto a surface, and to cooperatively research synthetic substitutes to this natural product with the University of Akron.